Brent, WTI prices drop considerably

Crude oil prices fell significantly on Wednesday after reports showed that gasoline inventories were up 0.4 million barrels last week, when a decline of nearly 2 million barrels had been expected.  Crude oil inventories were 0.6 million barrels lower, but that was much less than the 1.2 million barrel decline that had been predicted due to the loss of production from BP’s Prudhoe Bay, Alaska field.

Brent crude for October delivery was $1.44 lower to $71.80 per barrel in London, while October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped $1.65 to $71.45 per barrel.  In addition, Nymex September unleaded gasoline was down by nearly 9 cents to $1.8525 per gallon.

Prices have dropped below $3 per gallon on average in the United States, with more declines expected.  While US gasoline demand was up by 1.7 percent last week to 9.61 million barrels per day, it remained below the record demand of 9.7 million barrels per day set earlier in the summer.